Peoria's health care industry is about much more than people's well-being

Wednesday

Oct 23, 2013 at 12:01 AMOct 23, 2013 at 10:14 PM

Close to 5,000 births, 35,000 surgeries and 165,000 emergency room visits. Not to mention almost 15,000 employees and $1.4 billion in net revenues for patient care. That's just Peoria's three main hospitals in 2012.

Pam Adams

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Close to 5,000 births, 35,000 surgeries and 165,000 emergency room visits. Not to mention almost 15,000 employees and $1.4 billion in net revenues for patient care.

That's just Peoria's three main hospitals in 2012.

Add smaller hospitals, clinics, including specialized clinics such as Illinois CancerCare, numerous physicians' practices, nursing programs and the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria.

What you have is an immeasurable community benefit. Health care - and hospitals - are entering a new unchartered era.

The economic, political and social uncertainties that accompanied the passage and implementation of a historic health care reform law seep through the Tri-County region. But challenge, as they say, is another word for opportunity.

Area leaders latched onto the vision of a downstate medical mecca decades ago. There have been minor glitches and major setbacks.

Through it all, the region sustained the drive, innovation and healthy collaborations that always seem to put it on the medical map at crucial moments in health care history.

This is another one of those moments. Once again, the region's primary health care providers are at the forefront.

Cooperating networks of doctors, hospitals and other providers get paid more for keeping patients healthy and, potentially, less if patients return to the hospital repeatedly. The goal is to improve the quality of care while lowering the cost, with UICOMP researchers measuring the results.

Accountable Care Organizations, as they're known, are a profound change from the traditional approach. Peoria's health care providers are either involved in or connected to the transformation.

OSF Healthcare Inc., parent to Peoria's largest hospital, OSF Saint Francis Medical Center, is one of 32 Pioneer ACOs in a Medicare-sponsored program. Iowa-based UnityPoint Health, of which Peoria's UnityPoint Health-Methodist is a senior affiliate, is part of the pilot program.

With more than 110,500 patients and 640 physicians participating, OSF Healthcare has grown into the sixth largest ACO in the country, according to a survey by Modern Healthcare magazine. UnityPoint Health in Des Moines is the fourth. Advocate Physicians Partners, which also has a presence in central Illinois, is the largest.

Health is the heart of a region's quality of life. And health care providers are the heart that pumps life into the community.

Pam Adams can be reached at 686-3245 or padams@pjstar.com. Follow her on Twitter @padamspam.